Burying and Celebrating

I had a dream the other night. I was in a grand cathedral for a funeral. A young man, who turned out to be my brother in the dream, was dancing down the aisle. A friend said: “If it were my dream I’d be asking, ‘What am I burying? What am I celebrating?’”

I had written a column a few years back about burying. A friend was explaining to me about a ritual she had done. Each person had a stick which they decorated with what represented all their cares, concerns, and complaints. Then they went outside and buried them. I thought about that for a while and then I said, “I wouldn’t bury my stick, I would plant it.”

Isn’t that what we tend to do with our difficulties and dilemmas? We often bury them, hoping they’ll go away, or ignore them and pretend they don’t exist. No, I thought. I want to plant my problems. I want to use them as fodder for the future. I want to, yes, put them behind me, but in such a way that they are the foundation for something else to grow. They are the steps in the unlimited possibilities of the abun-dance of life.

What am I planting this season? I’m finding in my healing work that my clients continue to teach me, and reflect my story back to me. Most recently I had a client tell me that they felt they were meant to do great things. Ah, this was an ‘aha’ moment! How often had I felt this very thing, along with the shame and guilt that what I am doing now is not enough, that who I am now is not enough.

So I plant this guilt, this shame, this judgment, this comparison. And I celebrate my uniqueness, my individual gifts, my value and my worth at this moment. Today I choose the abun-dance of Life using all the steps I made to get here as my own beautiful creation.